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Strategies for Measuring the Costs of Freight Transportation

Data on the cost of transportation are central to understanding the economic importance of freight system performance, for evaluating the effectiveness of public policies to divert truck traffic to other modes, for understanding the implications of vehicle size and weight limits, for forecasting future freight demand and revenue generation for states and facility operators, and for monitoring the performance of transportation investments, regulations, and policies. Traditional sources of cost data disappeared with deregulation, or have become invalid by post- deregulation pricing practices that are no longer reflected in reporting systems to public agencies. While the Commodity Flow Survey measures the value of commodities being shipped, it cannot measure the cost of moving those commodities. The only public data on freight costs are survey-based national price indices by industry from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. <em>Transportation Statistics beyond ISTEA</em>, a publication by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, is among the publications that recognize the importance of this data gap and the profound difficulties in filling the gap. The objective of this research is to identify specific types of transportation cost data required by national, state, and local transportation and economic development agencies, assess different strategies for collecting those types of cost data, and propose a strategy for obtaining the needed data.</font></div>